Morning Report: Dana White ‘not interested’ in superfight between Georges St-Pierre and Khabib vs. McGregor winner.

When Georges St-Pierre made his return to the UFC after a four-year absence and moved up to middleweight to become only the fourth man to win champions in two weight divisions, many considered it the crowning achievement of his career, one that solidified his status as the greatest fighter ever. Now, St-Pierre wants to build on that legacy by becoming the first fighter to win titles in three divisions, declaring in interest in dropping down to lightweight to take on the winner of the Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor title tilt that will take place at UFC 229 in October. There’s one problem though: UFC President Dana White is not a fan of the idea.

Speaking recently to The BBC MMA Show, White addressed the comments from St-Pierre, saying that St-Pierre was only trying to make as much money as possible, and while he doesn’t begrudge “GSP” that, he’s also “not interested” in facilitating it either.

“I’m not interested in that fight,” White said. “He knows that and I’ve told him that many times. He was the 170-pound champion, he moved up to 185 pounds to take on Michael Bisping - and put in his agreement that he would absolutely defend the title at 185 - and then just dumped the title. I’m not interested.

“Georges St-Pierre is looking for one-off fights where he can make a lot of money - which is smart, that’s what he should do - but we’re not interested in that.”

St-Pierre’s last comeback did leave the UFC high and dry. After making a big fuss about his contractual obligation to defend the middleweight title should he win it, St-Pierre vacated his middleweight title a month later, citing medical complications with ulcerative colitis that would keep him out of action indefinitely. White was none to happy with what happened but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to see St-Pierre return again, he just wants to see GSP back at his old stomping grounds, the welterweight division.

“I’m interested in [St-Pierre coming back]. I’m not interested in that fight. I’m interested in Georges St-Pierre coming back at 170, not at 155 pounds.

“I don’t know [if he will come back though]. He’s not too excited about fighting or defending his title or anything like that. I don’t know if he’ll ever fight again.”

St-Pierre last fought at UFC 217, submitting Michael Bisping to win the UFC middleweight title.

UFC 229 almost sold out; already second-largest gate in UFC history

Tickets were put on sale to the public on Friday, and UFC ticket sales are already the second largest live gate in MMA history.

If you have any doubt that UFC 229 will be among the biggest financial events in UFC history, live ticket sales say that you shouldn’t.

Tickets were put on sale to the public Friday, after a presale that started two days earlier for UFC Fight Club members. By the three-minute mark, the company had already sold enough tickets to where it will be the second largest live event gate in the history of the sport.

UFC 229, the Oct. 6 show headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor for the lightweight title, with a ticket price range from $205 up to $2505, had only a few hundred tickets, all in the most expensive sections, available after the first three minutes tickets were put on sale to the public. The show was reported as an immediate sellout, but there were still a small amount of tickets left at the AXS ticket web site at $990 and up, as of Saturday afternoon. On Friday night, there were only 300 tickets left remaining.

With the way the show was scaled, the advance has surpassed the Nevada MMA gate record, set at UFC 200 of $10,746,248. Most of the tickets for that show were sold based on Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight title, a bout canceled late due to Jones failing a drug test, and Anderson Silva replacing him in a non-title match. Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Hunt was also a major part of that show, as well as just the symbolism of being UFC 200. On fight night, the actual main event was Miesha Tate defending the women’s bantamweight title against Amanda Nunes.

The advance has also surpassed one of the sport’s most legendary events, UFC 129 at Rogers Center in Toronto, which drew a quick sellout of 55,724 fans, but with lower ticket prices. That gate was $12,075,000 U.S., for a show headlined by Georges St-Pierre defending the welterweight title against Jake Shields, A key aspect of the quick sellout of a stadium was it being UFC’s first time in Toronto, which had been one of the company’s strongest pay-per-view markets dating back to the mid-90s.

The all-time record, which this show won’t break is the one set for UFC 205 on November 12, 2016, the company’s first-ever event in New York, held in Madison Square Garden. That show set the all-time record for any event ever held in the world’s most famous arena, doing $17.7 million. McGregor captured the UFC lightweight title beating Eddie Alvarez. McGregor was later stripped of the title for failing to defend it, and Nurmagomedov became champion beating Al Iaquinta on April 7 at the Barclays Center in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

On the secondary market, the cheapest tickets, originally priced at $205, are going for $631 and up. A number of ringside seats are being priced in excess of $10,000, with $45,000 currently the highest asked-for price for a front row ringside seat. The number of tickets on the secondary market are substantially lower than one would expect for a show that has sold nearly 18,000 tickets.

Because of much higher ticket prices, the UFC’s biggest live gate were well above some of the huge stadium gates in Japan during the heyday of the Pride organization, which never came close to a $10 million show.

The quick pace of ticket sales is more impressive in Las Vegas, which gets major shows all the time, as compared to a blockbuster show in a first-time major market like the New York and Toronto show. Historically, when UFC increases ticket prices to set a gate record for Las Vegas, the tickets may sell out, or come close, but they’ve never sold this many tickets at the speed they did for this show in Las Vegas.

Andre Pederneiras talks Conor McGregor’s heartfelt comments after Jose Aldo’s win, UFC 229 main event

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Jose Aldo received several messages and compliments after his stunning first-round TKO over Jeremy Stephens at UFC on FOX 30, including from his longtime rival Conor McGregor, but that didn’t surprise his coach Andre Pederneiras.

Days after the featherweight bout in Calgary, which marked Aldo’s first non-title fight in nine years and his first stoppage victory since 2013, McGregor told TMZ he was “so happy” for Aldo and Pederneiras.

”Honestly, truly happy to see the joy he had after it,” McGregor said. “It’s a crazy business and I know he’s gone through a lot of stuff. So to see him come back with that great finish, I was very happy for him and his coach Andre Pederneiras. The whole of Ireland was happy for Jose Aldo that night.”

Speaking with the media in his training center in Rio de Janeiro recently, Pederneiras said that shows who McGregor really is as a person.

”I think Conor created this pejorative myth around him because of the things he says, but backstage he’s none of what he portrays himself to be to sell,” Pederneiras said. “Every time I met him he was super respectful, we shook hands, so it doesn’t surprise me that he had that reaction, especially now that he doesn’t have anything booked with Aldo. If he had something booked with Aldo he would say he was lucky, that he’s sh*t [laughs], only to provoke. He’s a guy that had done things I can’t see anyone else doing. He’s unique in history, can’t say anything.”

In a scrum with Brazilian reporters the same afternoon, Aldo was asked who he would pick as his next opponent if he could choose anyone at featherweight or lightweight, but said he would leave that decision for his coach.

Pederneiras didn’t think twice: Conor McGregor.

”The first fight didn’t represent what the fight really could be, and that’s unfortunate for everyone who wanted to watch it,” Pederneiras said, “so I would choose Conor even though I have nothing against him. I know there’s a good person behind that artist and it doesn’t represent what he says. He says a bunch of crap to get attention and sell.”

Pederneiras believes everything “The Notorious” does in public space and interviews is to promote himself and make more money, including his attack to a bus full of UFC fighters in Brooklyn, N.Y., targeting UFC lightweight champion and future opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov.

”That’s him being the artist, in my opinion,” Pederneiras said. “He knows that he will have to fight Khabib, so since he has to do that, why not start the mess now and start promoting it?”

Nurmagomedov opened up as an odds-on favorite for their UFC 229 tilt on Oct. 6 in Las Vegas, but the experienced Brazilian coach wouldn’t count McGregor out against the 26-0 champion.

”Man, I’ll tell you this, Conor is someone you can’t underestimate,” Pederneiras said. “He has done things I didn’t believe he could do, so I think it’s 50-50, but the physical advantage for Khabib is too big. I see the stand-up fight being too dangerous for Khabib, depending on how long it takes for him to taking the fight to the ground. But if he takes the fight to the ground quickly, his chances increase a lot.”

Justin Gaethje isn’t sure why James Vick is talking so much trash, but he knows the payback will be sweet

A lot has been said in the lead-up to UFC Lincoln’s main event. Most of it by James Vick.

Ahead of the Aug. 25 contest, Vick has disparaged Justin Gaethje at basically every possible turn. He’s called his fellow lightweight contender a B-level fighter who lacks a world-class skill set, a clown who’s been exposed by the Octagon ranks. He’s dubbed Gaethje the “Homer Simpson of MMA,” and promised that he’s too smart, too sophisticated, too technical to fall pray to Gaethje’s torturous approach to the fight game. It’s a curious tactic considering the trail of broken bodies Gaethje tends to leave in his wake. Even in his lone defeats, Gaethje ensured that Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier limped home well aware they had been through something far more ruinous, far more visceral than a regular fist fight.

Because when one gets locked inside a cage with Justin Gaethje, they tend to learn a little about themselves, and the depths of hell through which they’re willing to crawl to prove their worth in the sport’s most talent-rich division. So considering that, it’s easy to understand Gaethje’s puzzlement regarding the type of wild claims Vick has been making to every microphone in sight in the countdown to UFC Lincoln.

“He just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get it,” Gaethje told MMA Fighting. “I don’t know, man. I don’t know, I don’t really care. I just can’t wait to put him to sleep, really, honestly. I don’t know. I don’t know why he’d say his volume is higher than mine, I don’t know why he’d say that he’s more athletic than me. I don’t know why he thinks he deserves the opportunities that I’ve gotten. He doesn’t understand how I’ve earned what I’ve gotten, how I earned three top-five opponents, how I earned three out of four main events, how I earned four Fight Night bonuses. He doesn’t understand. He feels entitled for some odd reason.

“He’s only fought one top-15 guy — he went to sleep. There’s a huge difference in the way we both went to sleep. He’s the definition of someone who’s not a fighter. How do you get knocked out laying on your back for three minutes when you don’t even go all the way to sleep? You know you’ve got fans and family out there worried about you — get up on your feet and find the stool. Small things like that, I just don’t think he understands what we’re doing here.”

There is exasperation in Gaethje’s voice when the topic of Vick arises, but not the fervent sort. Instead, Gaethje’s delivery is cold. Almost bored. Gaethje knows his opponent has been clamoring for a second chance to challenge the lightweight top 10 for years now. Now that it’s here, Vick is certainly making his presence felt. Gaethje just wonders if Vick may be making the rookie mistake of building himself up too much for a costly and precipitous fall.

“I just fought two of the best guys in the world in my weight class, and you didn’t hear one of them spouting this stuff out because they’re not stupid,” Gaethje said. “They knew that they were going to have to dig deep, they were going to have to prepare, ultimately, for themselves to go out there and give everything and be in a war that they knew they couldn’t avoid. He thinks he can avoid it, and when he can’t, he’s not mentally prepared.

“There’s gotta be one smart person around him that says, ‘Hey, even if you do think this guy is not on your level, why would you down-talk your opponent? Because if he beats you, when he beats you, you take on all that shit-talking you were just talking.’ He takes it on himself. So, he’s just putting more pressure on himself, honestly, and I’m excited. I’m excited to put him to sleep. I’m excited to put him in a fight. He tries to avoid the fight at all costs, and he’s not going to be able to do that.”

That’s not to say Gaethje is overlooking the dangers Vick brings into the cage. Far from it. After losing back-to-back coin flip affairs against Alvarez and Poirier, Gaethje knows he’s in no position to incur a third straight setback. He came a hair’s breadth away from winning both fights, but admits he ultimately was thwarted by the same mistake twice. He got too complacent, too comfortable with the chaos unfolding in the cage. He had one gameplan — take their legs home with him — and feels he was well on his way to being successful until he became too content and lost the vigilance that makes him a fight-finishing terror.

That’s something he’s worked “a tremendous amount” on fixing for Vick, a lightweight whose 6-foot-3 frame makes him one of the more peculiar opponents at 155 pounds.

“He’s obviously the tallest guy in the lightweight division,” Gaethje said. “He thinks he fights long. He could utilize his length better. He’s constantly running away from the fight. Every fight I see, he’s trying to avoid interactions, avoid striking interactions, and like I said, you can’t [do that again me]. Like I said, he’s going to run into the fence eventually, and he can’t go backwards anymore.

“He’s never even been in a five-round fight,” Gaethje added. “He’s never had the chance to go more than three. If he did have a five-round fight opportunity, he would’ve been in the fifth round many times, because he doesn’t go in there to finish people. He has a couple finishes. That was a very lucky punch he landed against (Joseph) Duffy, but other than that, like I said, he tries to avoid conflict. And we’re in there to create conflict. I’m in there to create conflict — and he’s not going to be able to avoid that.”

Another adjustment Gaethje had made for his UFC Lincoln camp is one that could pay dividends moving forward. After shunning wrestling for the past several years, Gaethje has brought in his old college mat coach, 2006 NCAA champ Ben Cherrington, to assist him once or twice a week for grueling grappling-only practices. For the first time, Cherrington will be in Gaethje’s corner at UFC Lincoln, and Gaethje speaks glowingly about what the extra time with his old coach his done for his physical fitness.

“Honestly, it’s just a different kind of shape. The reason I don’t wrestle is because I’m nervous to get tired, and I get tired in wrestling because I didn’t wrestle for the last three years or so. So, it’s just really to get in shape. It’s definitely not implying that I’m going to go into my fight and wrestle, by any means,” Gaethje jokes. “But he’ll be in my corner so maybe I’ll remember to take one or two double-legs.”

Ultimately, this time out feels a little familiar for Gaethje. It was only last summer that the former World Series of Fighting king found himself matched against Michael Johnson for his long-awaited UFC debut, and Johnson took it upon himself to drive down the same road Vick is now cruising for UFC Lincoln. Johnson insulted Gaethje. He disparaging Gaethje’s level of competition to the media and promised to run circles around the all-action fighter. He disrespected Gaethje every leg of the way, and in the end, he lost a piece of himself in that Octagon and promptly abandoned the lightweight ranks.

Will history repeat itself?

Only time can tell, but one thing is certain: If Gaethje wasn’t already motivated enough, Vick’s words have certainly added a little extra spice to an already important night.

“You can only say so many things, man,” Gaethje said. “At the end of the day, August 25, you have to get in there. They have to lock the Octagon, he has to get locked in there with me, and he’s going to have to deal with this. He’s in the UFC, he’s ranked No. 11 in the world — I’m not saying the guy’s not worthy. He fell into this, for one. It’s not like he was set up for this fight. Someone fell out and he stepped up, so he’s got the balls to step in there. I just don’t think he understands what he’s going to have to go through.

“Not to diminish my last two fights, but I didn’t like Michael Johnson. I was fired up for that fight, and I really had a lot of respect for the last two guys that I fought, so it’s definitely different for me. Motivation has been different every day. He lit a fire under my ass, and I’m excited to go out there and extinguish it on August 25.

“I’m going to march him down and make him pay for everything that’s come out of his mouth,” Gaethje continued.

“It’s going to be the most terrifying night of James Vick’s life. He will wake up a humbled turd, and he won’t look at himself in the mirror the same for a few weeks, I can guarantee it. He’s going to be a smashed turd when I’m done with him.”

Kamaru Usman to serve as official backup for UFC 228 main event, ‘dreamt’ this is how he becomes champion

Kamaru Usman has dreamt that he became the UFC’s welterweight champion after serving as a replacement for a title fight.

It just so happens that “The Nigerian Nightmare” will be playing such a role at UFC 228 in Dallas, where Darren Till is set to challenge Tyron Woodley for his welterweight championship belt.

On the latest episode of The MMA Hour, Usman told Luke Thomas that he would have been on weight for the Sept. 8 title tussle whether the UFC had officially reached out to him or not.

“It wasn’t really a selection process; I believe I was the rightful guy to be fighting for the belt in the first place,” said Usman.

“I was already training before they announced the fight,” he continued. “I was already going to make weight regardless of whether they called of not. It was going to be in Dallas, my hometown — that’s my fight. That’s a perfect fight for me.

“So, I was already in training and fortunately [the UFC] was like, ‘Hey, we want you on standby’. I was going to do that anyway, they didn’t have to tell me. I was going to be there on weight whether they compensated me to be there or not. I was going to do that for free because that was my shot.”

Usman underlined his hopes that neither Woodley or Till encounter any difficulties trying to make the welterweight limit. With that being said, he also revealed that he has dreamt that he won the title after stepping in on short notice.

“If Darren Till is able to make weight, more power to him, I want him to be able to make weight and get his shot. And if everything is fine with Tyron, more power to him. But in my dreams I dreamt this was the process of how I become champion.

“Nothing changes for me,” Usman said of his preparation. “The only difference is with the scheduled bout, there’s a little less of that pressure, a little less of that anxiety that you feel. Once you have an opponent in your mind that you’re preparing for, you’re working on specifics and you get guys in to mimic what they do. This is different where I don’t have to do that. I’m just training hard, doing the things I’m good at and kind of, in a roundabout way, doing some mimicking things of what these guys are good at. It’s a little less stress, I kind of prefer it this way.”

The title is inevitably what Usman wants. For that reason, Woodley would be his preference of counterpart should an opportunity arise in Dallas. Yet, when considering the duo as just opponents with no championship stakes, Usman revealed he would prefer to fight Till.

“If it was just as opponents, of course I would rather [fight] Till. Till is a bigger guy, right now he’s got the wave, he’s got the whole country behind him. He’s that face guy that the UFC is really behind and they’re really trying to push. So, yeah, I’d want Till, for sure, absolutely,” he said. “Plus, he hasn’t really been tested. Everyone wants to see that ground game tested. I want to test that, I want to see what he possesses down there when he’s put on his back.”

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Bellator 206: This Wanderlei Silva sparring video will have you worried about his Rampage Jackson fight
 

Bellator MMA has pegged Wanderlei Silva and Quinton Jackson for a heavyweight showdown at the upcoming Bellator 206 mixed martial arts (MMA) event, which takes place Sat., Sept. 29, 2018 inside SAP Center inside San Jose, California.

More on that showdown here.

This will mark the fourth meeting between the former PRIDE and UFC rivals, with “The Axe Murderer” holding a 2-1 lead. “Rampage” was able to score his lone victory when they last met, a UFC 92 knockout win back in late 2008.

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“I want to see you there man, straight in front of me and go toe-to-toe,” Silva told Jackson after a few rounds of light sparring. “I know you’re gonna try to take me down and I have a surprise for you. You’re not man enough to stand with me.”

Silva (35-13-1, 1 NC) turned 42 just last month and it showed in this video. Considering the intensity level of his sparring, I was a bit surprised to see him sucking wind by the end of the clip. Probably all that extra weight he’s carrying.

Let’s see if it pays off on fight night.

Despite lack of testing, Jon Jones says he never left USADA program
Jon Jones’ MMA career remains in a holding pattern as he continues to work on a resolution to a failed USADA drug test in 2017 following his fight with Daniel Cormier. That battle ended with Cormier brutally knocked out, but the result is now listed as a No Contest. But the bigger battle is in trying the ensure any suspension levied by USADA is closer to two years than five.

Jones has stayed pretty mum on that topic, letting his manager field interviews on that topic. That’s probably for the best given the last time he opened his mouth and spoke on the subject. But he recently took to Twitter to clarify another point regarding USADA: whether he was still in the testing pool.

Jon’s continued participation in the USADA drug testing program had been put into doubt last week when fans queried the USADA testing database and noticed Jones hadn’t been tested at all in 2018. Soon after, a single test appeared in Q3 of 2018 for Jones, but people still wondered if he had pulled a Lesnar and removed himself from the pool.

USADA rules specify that anyone removing themselves from the program has to spend six months being tested before returning to the cage. Brock Lesnar was infamously given a waiver to avoid this period the last time he returned for UFC 200, only to test positive for clomiphene (this ended the exception system all together). He then pulled out of the testing regime all together with six months remaining on his drug suspension, freezing it. Now that he’s returned to the pool in anticipation of a fight with Daniel Cormier in 2019, he’s serving both six month periods concurrently.

Smart, but also a bit sketchy. So it’s nice to hear that Jon Jones hasn’t done something similar. Whether it’ll help him convince USADA (or an arbitrator) that he deserves a shorter sentence is unclear.

Ronda Rousey wins the RAW Women’s Championship at Summerslam

Much like her early matches in mixed martial arts (MMA), Ronda Rousey just tore through her opposition quick to take a championship belt. This time it was the WWE’s RAW Women’s Championship title, which she took off Alexa Bliss in a five minute squash match that ended with (what else?) an armbar.

We’d show you more but there’s not much else ... the whole affair was a bit anti-climactic. Bliss offered no real offense and took three or four bumps before Rousey performed a decently convincing mangling of her arm, forcing a tap. The ending had shades of Rousey’s first fight against Miesha Tate, where Ronda snapped Miesha’s arm backward. We’ll have to get back to you on the time, but I think the celebration actually lasted longer than the match itself.
With the victory, Rousey joins Ken Shamrock and Brock Lesnar as the only athletes (and the first woman) to win titles in both WWE and UFC.

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Mickey Gall credits Randy Brown loss for forcing him to leave his ‘comfort zone’ for UFC Lincoln

It’s a common refrain in the fight game that an athlete’s first loss can be a teaching moment infinitely more powerful than all of the collective wins that preceded it. It’s also a refrain that Mickey Gall can seem to agree with.

Gall has been out of action since suffering the first setback of his professional career in a unanimous decision loss to Randy Brown last November at UFC 217. After beginning his Octagon run a perfect 3-0 with high-profile stoppages of CM Punk and Sage Northcutt, the rough night at Madison Square Garden proved to be an eye-opening experience for Gall, a 26-year-old welterweight who is currently slated to return against George Sullivan on Aug. 25 at UFC Lincoln. Much of Gall’s preparation for UFC Lincoln has differed greatly from any camp of his before — following the Brown loss, Gall decided to uproot his life from his native New Jersey out to Los Angeles, where he now lives with Yves Edwards and trains at the MusclePharm Gym alongside the likes of Joe Schilling and coach Jason Manly.

On Monday’s episode of the The MMA Hour, Gall spoke glowingly about what the change in scenery has done for his skill set ahead of his Octagon return.

“Had I not had an off night and not taken my first loss, I wonder would I be here right now?” Gall told host Luke Thomas on The MMA Hour.

“This was concocted after the fact, so I think it’s a: You win or you learn. I think I learned I need some — I was the best guy in my room at home, I thought I could do it all at home, and I think the loss made me look for more opportunity and other opportunities to grow, and to get out of my comfort zone and all of that.

“Had I ran through the guy and won that fight, maybe I’d still be Jersey and I wouldn’t even have tried this LA thing.”

Gall said he’s formed a good bond with Schilling, in particular. One of the best American kickboxers active today, Schilling has helped Gall smooth out the edges of his ever-evolving striking game, while Gall — a jiu-jitsu brown belt — has returned the favor and helped the Bellator fighter shore up his deficiencies on the ground.

It’s a marriage that Gall says has paid dividends in the lead-up to UFC Lincoln.

“I’ve been trimming the fat off of a lot of techniques,” Gall said. “Joe’s helped me a lot with a lot of understanding of standup. I’ve always been tough and I know I feel like I could crack anybody, but I understand it better. Like, I understand it more as a science in more ways, so I have even more confidence in my standup. I’d say [I’ve grown better at] everything, man. I’m learning a lot. I’m soaking it all up out here. Here, my job is to get as good as I can as quick as I can, and I think this is a necessary step to help expedite that process.

“It’s a beautiful facility and there’s always tough training partners coming through, so I’m getting a lot of tough work, seeing that high-level speed all of the time,” Gall added. “The UFC, GLORY guys, Bellator — just high-level dudes.”

In order to truly get back on track, Gall will first need to defeat a familiar face from his old stomping grounds.

Sullivan is a 37-year-old veteran of the northeastern fight scene who has suffered stoppage losses in three of his last four contests after kicking off his UFC run with back-to-back wins in 2014, and Gall is more than a little familiar with his fellow New Jersey native.

“George is a Jersey guy just like me,” Gall said. “He was one of the best guys, maybe the best guy on the regional circuit when I was first starting. George Sullivan, he was a CFFC champ, he’d just gotten called to the UFC, so it was cool, I kinda was like, ‘I’m going to be like that.’ I almost looked up to him a little bit then, but now I get to kick his ass on TV, so that’s cool.

“I think he’s a little old-school, a little stiff, and I think I can beat him anywhere, but I also know he’s a tough son of a bitch and he’s not going to be an easy out, but I’m going to get him.”

Gall said he was “chomping at the bit” to return to action sooner after his UFC 217 loss, even campaigning to fight in January at UFC 220 or as part of the promotion’s recent summer pay-per-views, either UFC 226 or UFC 227. The nine-month wait between opportunities ultimately ended up being much longer than he wanted, and he hopes to salvage his 2018 campaign by competing at least once more before the end of the year, preferably with a second shot at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 3 at UFC 230.

Gall also admitted to being surprised at his placement on UFC Lincoln’s fight card. Despite being one of the bigger names competing at the event, Gall and his matchup against Sullivan are slated to air on the FOX Sports 2 undercard portion of the broadcast.

“I don’t know. Maybe that’s a mistake, or it’s a mistake on purpose,” Gall said.

“I hope I’m on the FOX Sports 1 portion. I don’t think my dad has FOX Sports 2. I don’t think we’ve got FOX Sports 2 in Jersey, so I hope I’m on FOX Sports 1 so everyone can see me.

“I think it’d be silly for them to have me on that portion. Let me make a bang, make some noise, and do it on TV — on TV that everyone has.”

Regardless, after patiently waiting for a chance to rebound from his first career loss, Gall plans to make his presence felt at UFC Lincoln one way or another.

And in true Mickey Gall fashion, he may even have a name in mind to call out for his post-fight interview.

“We’ve always got a plan,” Gall said. “Hopefully it’ll be on FOX Sports 1 and everyone can see it.”

Daniel Cormier taunts Brock Lesnar after Summerslam loss

The dust had barely settled on Brock Lesnar’s latest major WWE appearance before Daniel Cormier joined in on the pro wrestling-style fun.

Lesnar headlined Summerslam on Sunday, dropping the WWE Universal Championship to on-screen rival Roman Reigns in what could be one of his last appearances for the sports entertainment promotion depending on what he decided to do with the UFC. The former heavyweight champion recently made a memorable cameo at UFC 226 after Cormier won the title from Stipe Miocic.

The two are on the same page as far as setting up a future matchup inside the Octagon and Cormier took to Twitter after Summerslam to poke some fun at his potential challenger

An avid wrestling fan, Cormier also made sure to congratulate former UFC star Ronda Rousey who claimed a women’s championship at Summerslam. She became the first female MMA fighter (and just the second fighter overall after Lesnar) to own a world championship in both the UFC and the WWE.